Don't get lax about conservation

If November and December's abundant rainfall made us feel secure about our water needs, January brought a much needed reminder that we must always conserve this most precious natural resource.

The Record

If November and December's abundant rainfall made us feel secure about our water needs, January brought a much needed reminder that we must always conserve this most precious natural resource.

The January snowpack survey this week found water banked for the summer in the Sierra Nevada is only 93 percent of average for this date.

The December survey found the snowpack to be 134 percent of average.

January is normally the wettest month of the year in California. Not this year. Across the northern Sierra, a region crucial to snowpack water storage, precipitation was only 13 percent of the January average.

That doesn't mean there will be a drought. It doesn't mean it won't rain like crazy during the two big rain months of the season.

It does mean we can't depend on a lot more precipitation or even average rain and snow from here on out. It does mean we have guard every drop of water Mother Nature makes available and use it wisely.